LTE antenna covers all bands

Antenova has released a switch-less wideband LTE antenna reference design for smartphones.

“The goal of a truly global LTE smartphone imposes great challenges on the antenna system,” said CEO Greg McCray. “While the current majority of LTE user devices operate in the 700MHz band, which has been heavily driven by the US market, rollout of LTE networks in other regions now require devices to operate in the LTE frequency bands utilised in those markets as well.”

According to the firm, its antenna covers all the LTE bands without the use of switches or tuneable active components: LTE 700, GSM850, GSM900, DCS1800, PCS1900, WCDMA2100, LTE B7 (2.5-2.69GHz), LTE B38 (2.57-2.62GHz), and LTE B40 (2.3-2.4GHz).

A10453, as it has been called, is 6mm high, designed for internal corner mount, and can be used in ones for single-in-single-out (SISO) applications or in symmetric pairs for multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.

“Optimal performance is achieved when two A10453 antennas in a symmetric pair configuration are mounted along the short edge of the PCB in smartphone applications,” said the firm. “A USB connector can also be fitted between the two antenna elements without affecting the performance.”

Used in its proposed MIMO configuration, total efficiencies of more than 50% over all bands are claimed, with an average efficiency over all bands of 61%.

Isolation between the two antenna elements is said to be below -10dB over all bands, and return loss is better than 6dB over all frequency bands, including better than 10dB on LTE B7.

“It has a lower BOM cost than active solutions and excellent hand and head performance,” added McCray.